


looking for an exit

by kaleidomusings



Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Alec Lightwood Deserves Nice Things, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Robots & Androids, Alternate Universe - Science Fiction, Androids, Dubious Science, M/M, Magnus Bane Deserves Nice Things, Magnus Bane Has No Chill
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-18
Updated: 2018-11-18
Packaged: 2019-08-25 07:46:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,726
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16657093
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kaleidomusings/pseuds/kaleidomusings
Summary: Everything Alec thought he knew about himself and the world is suddenly changed when he finds a broken, bleeding android in his bathtub.





	looking for an exit

**Author's Note:**

> Why did I write this story...? Good question. I'm not entirely sure myself.

The coffee in Alec’s mug tastes like muddy water and he glares down at the murky contents like they personally wronged him. 

Raj must’ve screwed up the settings on the coffee maker again. Although _how_ that’s possible, when he’s a machine himself is a complete mystery. Can’t he just plug into it and make it do whatever he wants?

Lydia notices the look on Alec’s face and her mouth curves up in the faintest hint of a smile. 

“You could just go and make your own coffee,” she tells him. 

Alec eyes her suspiciously. They’ve known each other since he first moved into the cubicle next to hers and recognizes the beguiling look on her face. 

“Are you saying that because I make better coffee than you and your bot?”

John, who is standing by Lydia’s chair, her ever faithful shadow and robot companion, glances over as her eyes narrow. 

“They’re called synthetic androids, Alec,” she says with more vehemence than he’s ever heard her use before. 

He stares back at her in surprise, because he hadn’t meant anything by it. Bot is just easier to say, but he understands why she took offense to it. _Bot_ implies lifeless machines, like the coffee maker in the break room, when androids look and act like real human beings. 

To some people, androids _are_ human beings, or at least something with a soul.  

“Lydia,” John says softly. 

He places a gentle hand on her shoulder, but it’s enough to pull her out of her sudden mood and she immediately deflates, looking ashamed. She apologizes to Alec, who brushes it off easily and assures her that he’s not offended. Because he's really not.

But Lydia’s strange reaction weighs on his mind throughout the day, and he can’t stop thinking about it when he gets off work earlier than usual and drives home. 

Alec has never had an android of his own. 

Not because he doesn’t want one, but because he has no reason to get one. He doesn’t have a need for a Companion like John, originally designed to be emotional support androids, providing assistance for the elderly or the infirmed. They can also care for children and do chores around the house, although most people keep them as fancy accessories or virtual pets. 

But then there are people like Lydia, who treat their Companions like actual companions. As friends and family, even lovers. 

“Anyone treats a bot like it’s alive is unhinged,” his mother said constantly, even in front of the family’s Protector android, Hodge. Hodge, who has always cared for and protected the Lightwood children like they were his own. 

Protectors are androids with combat training, meant to serve in the police force and the military. Some are like Raj, meant to act as security, although nothing ever happens at the office, so he mostly does mundane tasks no one else wants to do. 

Granted, he never does it _right_ because he’s a total idiot, but that’s beside the point. 

The point is that it doesn’t matter to Alec whether or not androids have souls, or if the people who love them are somehow broken, because he's never getting one of his own and that’s it. End of story. 

Except life is never that simple, and Alec remembers why when he pulls up into his driveway. 

Unlike the sleek and modern neighborhood around him, his house is a small Victorian style one story that probably hasn’t been remodeled since it’s structure was first built. At one point it must have been lovely, with decorative trim and turrets with big bay windows. But up until a year ago it was abandoned, and -after years of neglect- was barely able to hold itself together. There were even rumors that it was haunted by the time Alec moved in, but he loves it all the same, ghosts or not. 

Every weekend Alec works from morning to night, slowly but surely breathing life back into the place. And while the outside of the house still looks like the setting of a horror movie, the inside is a lot more impressive, warm and cozy, the way a house like this should be. He even completely redid the plumbing and writing, so he doesn’t have any problems with the running water and electricity anymore. 

Izzy calls it a dump and his mother calls it an eyesore, but that doesn't matter to him. Because it’s his and he put everything he has into making it a home. An empty home, but he’s not lonely. 

He’s too busy to be lonely. 

Or so Alec believed, until he reaches his front door and realizes that it’s unlocked. It makes him pause, because he’s never forgotten to lock it, and nothing seems amiss or out of place when he goes inside and shuts the door behind him. But strange feeling washes over him, like a part of him knows something isn’t right, even if he can’t quite put his finger on why. 

Then a faint humming sound catches his attention, growing louder and louder as he makes his way further into the house. He should turn around and leave while he can, either to get help from an neighbor or call the police, but his feet keep moving on their volition, until he reaches his tiny bathroom and stares at what he finds. 

Amber eyes gleam at him from the darkness, electric and strange, belonging to a shadow lying in his bathtub and blue light spills from cracks in the shadow’s chest. Alec reaches out and switches the light on, then really wishes he hadn’t. 

The figure lying in his tub, for all that he looks like a person, with dark hair and a tall lean frame, there’s no question what he is with those alien eyes. 

There’s a broken, bleeding android in his bathroom. 

“Are you just going to stare at me all night?” the android asks, sounding a lot more calm and amused than he has any right to be in his current condition. “Not that I mind, of course. But—”

“How did you get in here?” Alec demands. 

The android shrugs carelessly, more of the light spilling through the cracks in his chest in a really alarming way. “I used the door.”

“You mean you broke in,” Alec accuses and takes a step closer, but stops when the android tenses. It’s barely noticeable and he probably wouldn’t have caught the reaction if he hadn’t been watching to see it happen. Gentling his tone, he asks instead, “What happened to you?”

“Would you believe I got hit by oncoming traffic?”

Alec sighs, deciding he’s not going to get a straight answer and pulls his phone out of his pocket. The suddenly blank look in the android’s eyes makes him hesitate, unnerved by how unnatural and inhuman he looks. 

“I’m just going to call my sister,” he explains. “She can help you.”

The android tilts his head to one side, strangely catlike with his amber eyes. “Don’t bother," he says. "She’s already here.”

Alec blinks and is about to ask what he means by that, when he hears the front door open and close, followed by the unmistakable click of heels before Izzy appears in the doorway. 

She’s holding her laptop case and a big bag with a determined set to her mouth, but a look of alarm flashes across her face when she sees Alec and the state the android is in. But it only lasts for a moment, before she schools it into an amused smirk.

“This is going to be fun to explain, isn’t it?” she asks.

“You can start with why there’s an android in my house,” Alec says, rough and angry. 

Izzy pauses, as if she’s deciding if she should make a joke or answer truthfully, then says simply, “You’re home early.”

The cryptic answer infuriates him and Alec is about to tell her so, when she shoves him out of the cramped bathroom and into the hall. 

“I need room to work and you’re in my way,” Izzy says and slams the door in his face. 

Alec stares at the dark wood, stunned that he’s been kicked out of his own bathroom by his little sister and the audacity of it. Then he gets a hold of himself and heaves a great sigh as he decides to start on dinner. 

He imagines Izzy will be starving when she’s done, and there's no way in hell he's going to let her in his kitchen. 

—

Alec is dozing on the couch, his tablet resting in his lap, when Izzy opens the bathroom door hours later.

“Alec!” she calls. “Come help me.”

He startles awake, cursing under his breath when his tablet falls off and hits the floor hard. Scooping it up, he checks it over for cracks and fortunately doesn’t find any. He leaves it on the coffee table and goes to do his sister’s bidding, a snide remark on his tongue. 

That is until Alec catches sight of the android, standing in the middle of the room, perfect and whole and completely naked. 

“For god’s sake, Izzy,” he snaps and covers his eyes with his hand, cheeks hot under his fingertips as they laugh at him. The rational part of his brain knows that the android must have been naked earlier when Alec first stumbled across him, but it’s one thing to know and another to _see it_. 

Especially when it’s someone who looks human and is a lot more attractive than Alec has ever imagined an android to be. 

He turns on his heel and hurries away toward his room, hearing the android say very clearly, “Oh, Isabelle. He’s _adorable_.”

Whatever Izzy’s response is, Alec tunes it out as he rummages in his drawers for a faded shirt and sweatpants. He practically throws the clothes in the android’s face, who catches them with an insufferable grin, and then drags Izzy toward the living room. 

“Explain. Now.”

She frowns at him and looks forlornly back at the bathroom. “I still have all my equipment out. Can’t you—”

“Izzy,” he begs and the pleading note in his voice makes her pause. “Tell me what’s going on.”

She sighs and meets his gaze, her eyes suddenly big and very sad. “You’re not going to like the answer.”

And she’s right, because he doesn’t.

**Author's Note:**

> I love getting feedback so please leave kudos and comment! Feel free to also come talk to me on Twitter at [kaleidomusings](https://twitter.com/kaleidomusings%22).


End file.
